Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts

Monday, December 1, 2008

Using Skits in the Classroom



I love using SKITS in the classroom! They bring a concept home to roost.

Here are a few examples of skits I've used in my classroom. They all worked extremely well.
  1. Volcano Skits - Assign groups one of the three main types of volcanoes: composite, cinder cone, or shield. Require each group to illustrate the following in their skit: the slope of their volcano, the type of eruption, and the type of lava. They cannot talk, but can makes noises, especially to make the eruption noises. Everyone has to participate for full points. Let the rest of the class guess which one is being presented instead of having a group announce it. I've seen some great stuff with this assignment. They especially LOVE making the sounds associated with each type of volcano. One group ripped paper up to make the cinders and ash exploding out of a cinder cone. They cleaned up the mess, so it was worth it to me.

  2. Patterns of the Periodic Table Skits - Assign groups one of the main Patterns of the Periodic Table. They must keep their topic a secret because other groups will guess what their pattern is during their skit. I've seen some wonderful skits! One year a group used music to illustrate metallic, metalloid, and nonmetallic. Obviously, the metallic group was a hard rock band! They even mimicked plugging in their guitar.

  3. Geologic Eras Skits - Assign each team of students an Era and give them 5 minutes to come up with a pantomime illustrating at least two geological and two biological events from the Era. No words or sound effects this time! Have the other students guess which Era is being dramatized. Good way to review the main geological and biological characteristics of the Eras.

  4. Half Life Skit - Not really a skit, but it's got kids up and moving. Have the entire class stand up in the center of the room, all huddled together. Then touch the shoulders of students and have them step out of the "huddle" and stand around the outside of the room. Eliminate half at a time. As each "half-life" is completed, pause and ask them what just happened. You can either tell them what you are doing, or continue on, taking half out each time, and pausing for them to figure it out. How many half-lives to completely "decay" our class? If one half-life takes about 1 minute, how "old" is the class?

Friday, November 14, 2008

FRIDAY FUN!


One-Minute Mysteries

My good teacher buddy, Janet, loved to do this with her students when she had a spare minute.

Here's how this works:
Read a scenario. You know the answer. Your students get to ask yes or no questions to try to figure out the solution.

Good idea to recommend they start with general questions and narrow down to more specific questions.

Might be fun to make this a Team Game! Each team gets to ask a question and then take a stab at the answer. If they are wrong, then the next team gets a question.

You can purchase books of One-Minute Mysteries here.

Here is a website with over 100 Mysteries and the solutions.

EXAMPLE from the above website:
Mystery: Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice all live in the same house. Bob and Carol go out to a movie, and when they return, Alice is lying dead on the floor in a puddle of water and glass. It is obvious that Ted killed her but Ted is not prosecuted or severely punished.
Solution: Alice is a goldfish; Ted is a cat.

CONSIDER THIS: Add some Friday Fun to your classroom with One-Minute (or Two or Five!) Mysteries!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Paper Airplane Team Game




Here's a fun Team Game that would work great the day before a Big Test.

First, have each team make a paper airplane out of their team color. Click here for a good website for patterns and instructions. Give each team a piece of paper in their team color. They can choose an "expert" to make their favorite plane.

Establish a line at one end of the room. Have the teams line up behind the line. Or you can have one person per team come up to the line and the rest stay seated.

Put signs on different classroom objects that assign points, such as: chalkboard-5 points, teacher's desk-10 points, trashcan-20 points, etc.

Ask a Color Team a question and after a Team Huddle, the student in the front of the line answers for the team. If the answer is correct then that student gets a chance to throw their team's paper airplane and try to hit one of the target objects to win points.

Keep track of points and give the winning team a prizel such as: a free homework pass worth 10 points, or candy, or a new pencil, you name it!

The Questions could be similar to the ones on your test. They could be the exact Test Review Questions the students have already completed. They could be a review of what you've taught in the last couple of days.

CONSIDER THIS: Allow each student to bring their test review with them to the Team Game Table, which rewards those who do their homework!

CONSIDER THIS: Add a Paper Airplane Team Game to your arsenal of tricks!

Find Someone Who...



Find Someone Who... is a basic classroom team game.

If you Google it, you will find it all over the Internet. But mostly just as a First Week, get to know people, activity. Which is fine, don't get me wrong!

But it can be adapted to just about anything you are teaching and is a good, quick game that gets your students out of their seats and busy interacting with others AND trying to remember what they've learned lately.

Basically, you have about five things on a sheet of paper; such as:

Find Someone Who... (Basic First Week)
  1. has lived in another state
  2. has more than 3 siblings
  3. speaks a language other than English
  4. is taller than you
  5. is an only child

OR

Find Someone Who... (Cloud Week)

  1. can describe a cumulus cloud
  2. can define "lenticular"
  3. can list three "high" clouds
  4. can sketch a cumulonimbus cloud
  5. can list the weather associated with a nimbus cloud

OR

Find Someone Who... (Planet Week)

  1. can list the four inner planets
  2. can list the five outer planets
  3. knows how Pluto is now categorized
  4. knows what's in between the inner and outer planets
  5. can list three unique characteristics of Earth

The rules are simple.

  • You can sign a sheet only once.
  • You can't sign your own sheet.
I absolutely loved getting my kids up and out of their seats for a quick leg-stretch. But with an educational goal in mind. If you have ever attended a teacher convention, think how you felt sitting all day listening to expert after expert talk-talk-talk. Exhausting work. Or think back to your college days!

How can we ask kids to sit quietly without fidgeting all day when it's hard for most of us to do the same!

Which is why I like to get kids up. If you don't trust yourself to get your students sitting back down in their seats quietly and quickly, you need to work more on classroom procedures. It IS possible to have kids up and down all period with a minimum of fuss and bother. It's just a matter of training them properly. Click here for more details on this.

CONSIDER THIS: Add more leg-stretching games such as FIND SOMEONE WHO. Make up a quick review game today and use it tomorrow!

FUN LINKS: click here for an example of Basic First Week.
Click here for an example of Find Someone Who Knows Safety.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Cloud Speed Game


Cloud Speed Game

Teaching clouds? Start today off with a Cloud Speed Game.

Run off enough pages of this Cloud Speed Game so you have one per team.

If you already have Teams set up, have them get into Color Teams with each team member taking a pencil with them.

"On your mark, get set, go!"

Every team member writes as many cloud names on the paper as possible.

When they are done, they need to holler, "Done, Red." Or whatever their color team is. Keep track as they yell. Collect the papers. While they go on to another assignment, such as recording the day's weather information onto their Week's Weather handout, check the papers for accuracy.

Announce the winners!

CONSIDER THIS: Start the day off with a fun team game that reviews material you've already taught. Then counter that frantic activity with some quiet but meaningful. Good way to start the day!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Vocab Matching Team Game



You're never too old to play games that help you learn.

My 92 year old father moved down here from Minnesota this summer to be near his family. We are loving having him just down the street. It's a real joy.

The Independent Living place he's moved into has already tapped him to help teach a computer class. They've figured out he's a real computer expert and has a lot to share with his neighbors.

So along with the Activity Director, he's teaching a beginning computer course to a couple dozen eager students.

Last week, I gave him a Matching Game for his course based on my old stand-by, the Vocab Matching Team Game. I made brightly colored sets of vocab and definitions from his beginning lesson.

He and the Activity Director decided to divide the class into two teams and away they went! And they LOVED the game!

So if you can substitute the kids in the above photo with 70-80-90-year olds, you've got the picture of that day in the computer classroom.

Dad said they started out slowly, but once they caught on to what the object of the game was, away they went!

And those that came to the class too late to participate, according to my Dad, will be on time next class just to see what tricks he has up his sleeve.

Stick with me, Dad. I've got lots more great ideas, that literally will work for students from 9 to 90!

CONSIDER THIS: Even if you teach high schoolers, a simple team game will add lots of punch and learning to your classroom.

FUN LINK: Check out my Active Games page.